


The Burden of the Victor

by AnagramRMX



Series: The Power of Three (Plus Two) [5]
Category: Charmed, Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Fusion, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Episode Style, F/M, Family, Family Drama, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-23
Updated: 2013-11-23
Packaged: 2018-01-02 11:16:16
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 18,415
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1056117
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnagramRMX/pseuds/AnagramRMX
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Halliwells finally seem to have gotten a hold on their powers, but someone keeps breaking into the manor to steal their spellbook. Dean tries to fix that with a handyman named Leo, and the girl's father, Victor, suddenly appears under mysterious circumstances.</p>
<p>Or, Episode 3 of Charmed if Dean and Sam were Halliwells</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Burden of the Victor

**Author's Note:**

> We have Victor and Leo in this chapter. Hopefully it isn't too much like the original episode. :/  
> Not betaed, sorry for any weirdness I didn't catch while Proofing.

Dean looked inside the manor one last time as he, Prue, Piper and Phoebe were about to leave the house. Sam looked out at him, rolling his eyes.

“Will you go already?” the youngest Halliwell said with a roll of his eyes. “The party is right across the street.”

“Hey,” Dean grumbled back. “All I said was make sure to lock the door, little bitch…”

“Jerk…” the younger brother responded before closing the door on the older members of his family.

“Dean,” Prue sighed. “Can we just go? Sooner we get there, the sooner we can leave…”

He rolled his eyes, but fell into step with the girls almost immediately, all dressed in their party best to go to the housewarming at their neighbor’s house. None of the Halliwells really knew the new neighbors well, but Phoebe and Dean weren’t the kind to turn down a party, and Piper wanted to get to know their neighbors.

Prue on the other hand was dreading that she had agreed to go.

“Alright, so once I say hi to the three of them, I’m probably just gonna go back home, alright?” she warned her family.

Piper rolled her eyes. “Oh come on, Prue. It’s a party, it’ll be fun.”

“Or, it’ll be dull and I’ll just be wasting my time,” Prue argued. “I have to be at work in the morning.”

Dean shook his head a little but laughed. In the past week, since finally coming to accept their new powers, he had mellowed out quite a bit. He was no longer concerned about hurting people when he left the house, and he was even starting to forgive himself for blowing up the auto-shop he had been working at until recently. “It’s not like we’re tearing it up out here. It’ll be a few hours of small talk and a few beers. No sweat.”

“Come on, Prue. Have a little fun,” Phoebe teased, as they all stepped off the sidewalk, none of them noticing the Rottweiler hiding in the bushes beside the house, eyes glowing, and just waiting for them to get across the street.

As they walked past a group on the other side of the street, Phoebe’s face lit up a little. “Hey, I have an idea. Why don’t we throw a party and charge admission? It’s a great way to make extra cash.”

A sneer appeared on Prue’s face. “Hey, I have an even better idea. Why don’t you get a job?”

“Cool it you two…” sighed Piper as they walked up to the tall man that was their host.

“The Halliwell cousins,” Marshal greeted, smiling at them while swishing around the beer in his cup. “Now the party can begin!”

“It’s about time you chicks showed,” his roommate and sister, Cynda, remarked from his side. “The little one didn’t come? Sam?”

Dean shook his head. “Doesn’t really like parties,” he said shortly, even though it had a lot more to do with the fact that Sam had a raging headache and had no desire to make it worse.

The third of their band, Fritz, appeared at Cynda’s side, waving at Prue. “Hey, I’m really glad you came.”

Prue forced a smile. “Wouldn’t miss it for the world, Fritz,” she lied.

“Marshall, the place looks great,” Piper said brightly, looking around the old house that had once belonged to the neighbor family. They’d been here all the time when they were kids, playing games, and in Dean’s case, flirting with the youngest daughters.

“Thank you,” Marshal said congenially. “We’re mostly just restoring it. I didn’t want to change it too much. You guys knew the old owners, didn’t you?”

Phoebe laughed. “Oh, we basically grew up with their kids!” she laughed. “We probably know the house better than you guys.”

Unable to resist himself, Dean raised his eyebrows, trying to make a joke. “The stories I could tell about that upstairs bedroom…”

Prue looked over at him and smacked him in the chest with a frown. Marshall’s brow furrowed at the comment, and he decided change the conversation.

“Oh, hey, how’s the bar?”

Fritz made a face, and glanced around some of the guests. “Oh. Dry. I’ll take care of it.”

But Cynda held out an arm to stop him. “Nope, my turn,” she said before looking back to the sisters, and crunching the can she had in her hands. Marshall looked unimpressed with the display of force, and Dean looked put out by it.

“Try to behave, Cynda,” Marshal sighed. “We have guests.”

As Cynda walked off, Fritz winced a little before looking back to their guests. “You know: sisters,” he commented.

Dean raised his eyebrows, and said “Totally” at the same time Prue replied “Tell me about it.” Both comments earned looks of mock outrage from Piper and Phoebe.

“What would Sam say if he heard you?” Piper asked sharply.

A laugh was Dean’s only response.

Marshall rolled his eyes. “So listen, enjoy the party,” he said, before walking off to attend to his other guests.

Phoebe smiled, and they shuffled about as she nodded in affirmation, and Fritz and Marshall walked off. Prue’s enthusiasm vanished the second they were out of earshot.

“Okay, I came, I saw, I was perky. Now I just want my head on a pillow because I have to wake up early.”

“You sure about that?” a voice asked from nearby, and they all turned around to see Andy standing there.

A bright smile appeared on Prue’s face, and she rushed forwards to hug him. “Hey, I didn’t know you were going to be here.”

“Last minute invite,” Andy said simply before drawing away and then smiling at the others as they strategically detached themselves from the couple. Prue giggled a little as Phoebe gave her a suggestive look.

“Not to sound like I don’t want to see you,” Prue eventually continued. “But I really would rather go home than stay here.”

Andy just smiled at the comment. “I’m sure we can spend a little time together over there instead.”

That made her smile broaden, and she seemed to forget that she had work in the morning as they walked towards the door together.

The street was blessedly empty as they walked arm in arm across the asphalt to the manor, both grinning in anticipation of would transpire once they got inside.

Until Prue saw that the front door was ajar.

Immediately, she started to worry, knowing Sam had at least closed the door when they left. She could almost have sworn he had locked it, too. Andy grew worried when he saw it as well, and put an arm in front of her as they cautiously walked up the porch stairs.

“Do you normally make a habit of leaving the door open?” he asked.

Prue pushed past him. “No, and Sam was home alone tonight.”

She walked through the front door and looked around frantically for signs of her younger cousin. The bottom floor didn’t look like anything had touched it, but she could hear something that sounded an awful lot like growling.

“Sam?” she called into the house. Andy walked in behind her, equally as careful.

An almost desperate call returned down to them. “Prue?”

Immediately Prue started to go in the direction from which she had heard it. “Sam, what’s going on?”

“Don’t come up here!” Sam blurted back down. “Get Dean or something!”

But she didn’t stop until she saw him on the last flight of steps, slowly backing down as a big, black and brown dog growled at them from the top step. Prue swallowed hard, and stopped where she was. Andy ran into her as he followed, and froze when he saw the dog.

“Sammy?” Prue squeaked.

“It…it was scratching at the door to the attic,” Sam replied, still slowly backing down. “I didn’t have a chance to get a…” he paused before he said the word _gun,_ realizing Andy was there. “A phone or something…I don’t know how it even got in…”

“That’s alright Sam,” Andy said firmly, taking control of the situation like only a cop could. “We all need to get out of here, though. Keep walking back slowly until you reach the step we’re on, and then you and Prue need to run for the front door, okay?”

Prue moved a hand back, and gripped Andy’s wrist. He didn’t respond, focused on the danger at hand.

Sam, on the other hand, made a little noise of affirmation, and kept backing down the steps until he felt Prue’s hand on his back. Wordlessly, they both snapped around and ran for the front door.

They stopped in the front yard, looking back at the front door for Andy, who emerged half a minute later, and immediately ran across the street to find the other Halliwells.

 

(-:-)

 

It didn’t take long to find Dean, Piper and Phoebe at the party or to tell them about what had happened at the manor. They all rushed home as soon as the story was over, not even stopping to say goodbye to their hosts.

When they got there, the dog was gone, but everyone was left shaken. Andy stayed for two hours before he was willing to leave the house, and still no one was ready to go to sleep.

Instead, everyone holed up in the kitchen. Sam took some pain killers that he knew wouldn’t help the headache his powers were giving him. The girls changed out of their party dresses, and into the comfiest sweaters they could find. Dean started to look for places they could hide a gun on the stairwell, in case something like this happened again.

“How big was this dog again?” he asked, incredibly irritated that something had gotten into the house and tried to chew on his little brother.

“Huge,” Prue said, for probably the fifth time since they had gotten home. “You saw the scratches on the door. It wasn’t a poodle.”

“But it wasn’t a monster either,” Sam grumbled from the other side of the kitchen island. His head was pressed against the cool marble, trying to dull his headache in any way possible. “It was just a dog. You don’t have to freak out.”

“Like hell we don’t,” Piper said flatly. “Magical monster or regular blood-thirsty dog, it’s still dangerous. What was it doing in the house in the first place?”

“I don’t know,” Prue sighed. “It can’t have just wandered in. Sam locked the door and everything…”

“Kit got in,” Phoebe commented, pointing at their recently adopted cat who was milling around the kitchen floor absently. “Maybe the dog got in the same way.”

“Kit can fit through a crack in the wall,” Dean argued. “No way a full grown hound can find its way in like that.”

There was a beat of silence where everyone racked their brains, trying to figure out what it could have been. The doors were all locked, the windows were all shut, and Sam hadn’t even heard anything going on until the dog started scratching at the attic door.

“It’s still creepy,” Piper muttered. “If there’s a dog, then it had to have an owner. I can’t think of any dog that could open that door, much less unlock it.”

Sam made a suggestion, although his voice was muffled by the counter top.

“What was that?” Prue prompted.

The youngest Halliwell picked his head up slightly, and repeated himself. “Maybe we should get a security system.”

It was Dean that put that idea down. “No. Those things a pain in the ass and would go off every other day if we keep having our current warlockproblems. Police would be at our house at the _worst_ times…”

He looked at the others pointedly, since they had already agreed that the cops were a problem they couldn’t afford right now, and everyone sighed in acquiescence.

“Besides,” Prue added. “Andy’s going to be checking in on us every day until we figure out what’s going on. We just need to be careful, and keep our phones with us in case it happens again.”

“Alright, then in the mean time, the rest of us should go to sleep,” Piper suggested, standing, and prodding at Sam’s shoulders. He grumbled something, but slowly got up. “The three of us need to be up early tomorrow, and you two,” she looked pointedly at Dean and Phoebe, “need to start on those repairs to the house.”

Prue’s brow wrinkled. “I thought we were hiring someone,” she mentioned.

“We were,” Piper confirmed. “But then we lost Dean’s income. Until he or Phoebe gets a job, they have the time and the ability, and they are going to start by getting a new attic door.”

With that, Piper and Sam walked out of the room, ready for the night to be over. Prue quirked her head, like Piper’s explanation made sense.

Phoebe and Dean looked at each other, sort of confused.

“Did we just get signed up to fix the entire house?”

 

(-:-)

 

The next morning was mostly quiet, although no one was as nervous as they were last night. Piper took Sam to school at the same time she left for work, and Dean and Phoebe groggily started to handle the replacement of the attic door. Prue stuck around a little later than normal to help them find the measuring tape and didn’t get to work until five minutes after she was supposed to be there.

When she walked in, everything seemed to be business as usual, including the fact that her coworker Laurie wasn’t in his office, and was instead standing outside of it talking to an older man with dark, graying hair. The man looked familiar, but Prue couldn’t place his face. Laurie looked irritated about _something_ , but was still smiling broadly.

“…Can’t imagine why anyone would do that,” he was saying.

“I don’t know. If you weren’t there, you don’t know what happened,” the stranger argued.

Laurie didn’t respond, but then saw Prue out of the corner of his eye. There was a split second where Prue saw him consider something, his eyes gleaming with something unpleasant that she couldn’t name. But it was almost instantly replaced with a dangerously friendly smile. “Prue, just who we were waiting on,” he declared. “This man came looking for an appraisal of his ring.”

Prue raised an eyebrow, and walked over to him suspiciously. “Isn’t that your department?” she asked.

“That’s why I came to him first,” the stranger confirmed. “However Mr. Hiddleston tells me that it would take a week for him to do it, and I just…I wouldn’t feel right without it. It’s a family heirloom.”

He slid the ring off his finger, and handed it to her gently. She felt like she had seen it before, too. She looked up at Laurie. “I’ll handle this,” she said, before waving the stranger towards her office.

She continued to turn the ring over in her hands as she walked. “I think I’ve seen a ring similar to this before,” she said to him. “The setting is quite old, at least seventeenth century…”

She trailed off as they reached her office. She motioned to the man to sit down while she went and grabbed a book off of her reference shelf in the corner.

“The stones look like crystallite,” she said before flipping the book open. “Keep in mind that this is an educated guess…”

“Please, guess away.”

The tone in his voice made Prue look up suspiciously, but she looked back down and reached the page she was looking for. The book showed her a variation of the ring she held in her hands: same metal, same stone, slightly different setting and markings. A few of the pieces started to fall back into place as to where she had seen it before.

“This wouldn’t be a wedding band by any chance, would it?”

He smiled a little. “You tell me,” he said.

Prue got a twinge in her gut like he was playing a game with her, and a few moments later, looked back at the book.

“The stones are set in twos, the symbol of duality. Man, woman. Like in protection…”

The idea suddenly clicked in her mind where she had seen it. On her father’s finger, with a matching one on her mother’s. She started to shake a little as she looked back up at him. It couldn’t be…

 “Where did you get this ring?” she questioned. “What…did you say your name was?”

He smiled at her again. “I think you know what my name is, Prudence.”

The use of her full name made her heart stop, and she was on her feet without a second thought. “Get out,” she growled at him.

The man didn’t even move from his seat, continuing to smile as she glared down at him.

Now that she was paying attention, she should have recognized him. He was far older than he had been when she last saw him, but he had the same amused, caring look on his face. This man was definitely Victor Bennet, her father, and the man who had walked out on them.

“Is that any way to speak to your father?” he joked.

Her teeth gnashed. “How dare you…” she hissed at him. “Why should I give you the time of day after what you did?”

He didn’t answer the question. “I was in town, thought I could drop in and have a little reunion,” he continued, heedless of her anger. “I’m staying at the Balmark. Why don’t you and your sisters join me for dinner tonight? Say seven o’clock?”

“Not on your life,” she responded sharply.

This time, at least, he grinned. “Fiery temper. You definitely got that from your grams.”

“Well it’s not like I could have gotten it from you.” She moved to grab her phone from the corner of her desk. “Now leave. We both know how good you are at doing that.”

“I can see we have some issues to work through.” The tone in his voice almost suggested that he was amused by her attitude. But he stood up and started to walk out all the same. “Remember. Dinner at seven.”

Prue’s chest felt like it was being squeezed in a walnut cracker as he walked out of the room, and she struggled to breathe normally.

After a moment, she put the phone back down, and she shuddered.

Her father was back in town.

That couldn’t mean anything good.

 

(-:-)

 

The hardware store was pretty much empty when Dean and Phoebe got there at 9:30. It didn’t take long for them to find their way to the area where they sold doors. They weren’t looking for anything fancy, but had agreed that they needed a door sturdy enough to resist another warlock trying to kill them, preferably with a deadbolt and a decent lock.

That being said, the majority of the doors on display were the kind you used as front entry ways, and totally not what they were looking for. The only door they found that didn’t have a window at the top was way out of their price range.

Dean started to wonder if they needed to check a different store just as a man walked up.

“Um, hey, I don’t mean to intrude, but do you guys need some help?”

Phoebe and Dean looked over with completely different expressions. Dean was being stereotypically male and didn’t want help finding the parts for his project. Phoebe on the other hand was eying him like she was at a club. He was about Dean’s height, although definitely a few years older. He had sandy blonde hair, and trusting, bright blue eyes.

“Nah, we’re good,” Dean started, but Phoebe cut him off.

“Yes, actually, we’re having some trouble finding a door…obviously,” she said. “Do you know where they keep something a little plainer?”

The man smiled a little, and waved them over to the back shelves. They didn’t have any displays, but he easily pointed them do a plain, but sturdy, door. Dean barely had to mention putting a different lock on it before the man (after calling another salesman over to carry their door up to the cash registers) then dragged them over to the door knobs, and picked out a deadbolt for them.

Dean was mildly impressed, considering he hadn’t wanted help to begin with, but Phoebe had moved on to the portion where she flirted with the guy for his help.

“Wow, this place has great service,” she praised. “Seriously, where’s your manager, he needs to know what a stellar job his employees are doing.”

The man laughed good naturedly at the comment. “I don’t work here actually,” he said. “I just thought you guys needed help.”

“Seriously?” asked Dean. “C’mon, no one just goes looking to help people these days.”

“Not like it costs me anything,” he replied. “I’d even be willing to help you guys install it if you want.”

Dean, again, started to say that they would be fine, but Phoebe smiled. “That would be great! What’s your name?”

He smiled at the two of them. “Leo, Leo Wyatt.”

Phoebe opened her mouth to say something about how they should get going then, but before she could say anything, her cell phone rang. She smiled at Leo before scurrying to the end of the aisle to answer it.

While she was gone Dean looked at Leo and smiled a little awkwardly. “Ah, really man, thanks for helping us find the door, but I think we can handle putting it in ourselves.”

“It wouldn’t be a problem,” Leo tried to assure him. “I work for a home repair company, but I’m kinda married to my work. Couldn’t even take my day off without trying to fix something wrong with my truck, this morning.”

Dean couldn’t help the little balloon of curiosity that welled up in his throat, and immediately asked, “What model is it?”

“1990 Dodge Dakota,” Leo answered without skipping a beat. “There’s a leak or something, but I’ve never been much of a car guy myself, so I haven’t really been able to figure it out yet.”

“I could probably look at it if you want,” Dean suggested.

Leo opened his mouth to ask if he was a mechanic, but before he could say anything, Dean’s big-brother senses went off. When he looked over at Phoebe, he could see that she had become absolutely still.

“Pheebs?”

Phoebe shot a look over her shoulder, and quickly said something into the phone receiver before snapping it shut and walking back over to them. She seemed to loosen up a bit, but there were still nerves dancing on her face.

“What’s going on?” Dean asked her.

“Um, that was Prue,” she replied. “She…she wants us to meet her and Piper at Quake…like…now.”

The look of concern on Dean’s face only got worse. “Why?” he asked. “What happened?”

She looked up at him, and even though she smiled a little, there was a look of anxiety in her eyes. “Dad went to see her at work,” she replied. “Dad’s in San Francisco.”

That news made even Dean’s stomach drop a little. Dean had never met his uncle, but he knew how Phoebe and Piper had always wanted to meet him. He also knew that Prue hated him. “W…whoa,” he muttered. “That’s…”

“It’s great!” Phoebe said, her voice still a little shaky. “We should go ahead and meet them. I’m sure the door can wait till tomorrow.”

Dean wanted to protest, as they had been so close to having gotten their chore done, but he couldn’t find any words. Instead, Leo smiled a little. “Sounds like this is important,” he said. “You better go. Why don’t I give you my number, just call later and I’ll find a time to come help you out, alright?” He slid a business card into Dean’s hand, before waving and walking off.

Dean and Phoebe nearly silently went ahead and bought the door, having it scheduled for delivery the next day, before driving out to Quake, where Prue was waiting in the entryway. Piper quickly got them a table, and it didn’t take long for Prue to explain what had happened at Buckland’s that morning.

For a few minutes, they all quietly thought about what Prue had just said, but it was pretty evident that Phoebe was excited that she could finally meet her father. Prue was still angry, and Piper was just hopeful. Dean tried to stay quiet. Even if he had never met the man, Victor still meant a lot to his cousins, and he knew better than to upset members of his family.

“I wonder why he went to you first,” Piper eventually commented. “Why not Phoebe or me?”

Prue sighed a little. “It’s not like I won the lottery.”

“What was he like? Did he ask about us?” Phoebe asked.

“Actually no,” Prue said bluntly. She didn’t miss how Phoebe’s face fell, and sighed a little. “Come on, you two, think about it. He _abandoned us._ He was a no-show for twenty years and then what, suddenly here he is? Why now?”

“Maybe he just wants to be part of our lives,” replied Piper optimistically.

Prue was still doubtful. “After all this time? Don’t get your hopes up.”

“Well, there’s only one way to find out. Why wait till dinner? Let’s go see him now,” suggested Phoebe.

“Will you be rational?” Prue shot at her. “Don’t you find it just a little suspicious that just when we find out…”

She trailed off as a waitress came up to their table, bringing them an appetizer that Piper had ordered. Dean smiled at her charmingly, making up for how the girls fell guiltily-silent.

“…Just when we find out we’re witches, he shows up. But when mom died, he’s nowhere to be found?”

“We don’t know that he knew,” Piper said flatly. “I mean, from what we’ve heard, Uncle John doesn’t even know about our powers. Maybe it was just a really enormous secret.”

“Or maybe Uncle John didn’t tell us because he didn’t want us to become witches and _everyone_ knew but us,” Prue suggested. “But this isn’t about him. Dad wasn’t there for us. Ever.”

“He sent birthday cards,” Phoebe pointed out.

“Selective memory,” Prue jabbed. “Grams always told us that he was a threat. There’s no reason to think that’s changed.”

Piper sighed a little. “Prue, it’s not that I don’t see your point, but you knew him, we didn’t. Why can’t we have a chance to know now?”

“Because we don’t know why he’s here, and until we do, we can’t trust him.”

Around the table, Piper looked put out, and Prue looked dead-set on not speaking to her father ever again.

Phoebe, though, looked defiant. Prue really should have learned by now not to tell her what not to do.

A half hour later, Dean went ahead on home to see what else in the house needed to be repaired, and Prue and Piper went back to work. Phoebe excused herself on the basis of needing to think.

It didn’t take her long to find the Balmark hotel. The receptionist wasn’t hard to sweet-talk into telling her what room Victor was staying in. Even so, when she started walking towards his room, her face was red, and her heart was pounding like she had had to scream at someone to find him.

She knocked nervously on the door he was supposed to be behind.

“ _Entrée_ ,” eventually came from the other side, and she made her way through with her nerves on fire. Inside, there were two people, one being a masseuse, the other being an older man with graying hair. Phoebe’s eyes lit up a little.

“Daddy?” she managed to squeak out.

Victor’s head snapped up, and he smiled. “Well, well, what a nice surprise.” He waved of the masseuse, and started to stand, wanting to get a good look at her.

“I’m uh…I’m sorry just to show up like this,” she said, her voice shaking. “I know I was supposed to wait for dinner, but I…”

“Nonsense,” Victor cut her off. “Welcome, let me get a good look at you.” He paused to sigh a little, like he was regretful. “This is my baby girl…little…” He trailed off, and Phoebe’s heart started to sink. “Piper?”

Phoebe was more than a little disappointed that he didn’t even recognize her, which was probably why he had sought out Prue instead of either of his youngest girls. Her disappointment also must have been visible on her face, because Victor already looked like he knew he made a mistake.

“Phoebe,” he corrected sadly.

Phoebe still tried to smile. “Yeah, that’s okay. People confuse us all the time,” she lied.

Victor scoffed a little. “Are you kidding?” he said. “I should be slapped and persecuted. Let me make it up to you. How about some room service?” He started to move towards the phone, but Phoebe waved him off.

“I just ate, actually.”

“A drink?” he suggested next. “You are legal, right?”

She shook her head again. “Barely, but no thanks,” she said.

“A massage?” Victor asked. “I can call Lucy back.”

But Phoebe just shook her head again. “No, really, I don’t want anything. I just wanted to look at you.”

This made Victor smile, and Phoebe’s heart started to rise again. “It’s like looking in a mirror, isn’t it?” he said after a beat. “You’ve got your daddy’s eyes, you know that?”

Phoebe laughed a little. “I noticed that.”

There was another beat, but this time, Victor held open his arms, and his suggestion was far more acceptable. “How about a hug?”

The grin on Phoebe’s face widened, and she stepped forward to eagerly take the affection offered. She was surprised, though, that when she touched him, a series of images flooded into her brain. She was having a premonition, and her father was in front of the manor, holding the book of shadows. It faded just as the phone started ringing on his bedside table.

“They always manage to find me,” Victor sighed, pulling back to answer it, while Phoebe stood stalk-still, her premonition starting to churn in her head. Why did her dad have the book? Was that his entire reason for being back in San Francisco? Was Prue right about him?

“Ah…you know what?” she called to her father, slowly backing towards the door. “It’s okay. I…I’ll just see you at diner. I’ve gotta go…”

Her breathing started to speed back up as she ran out of his room, ignoring it when he called after her.

 

(-:-)

 

Sam shrugged off his bag when he got into the manor, and started rubbing at his temples. He was starting to get used to having migraines every day, but it still hurt. He was so focused on the pain that he almost didn’t notice that the front door was open. He barely caught it out of the corner of his eye, and had to back pedal.

And then he noticed that Andy was in the house.

Seeing him wasn’t shocking, as Prue had said he would be checking up on them, but it he was just standing there like a creeper in the middle of the day. Even now, Andy was just sort of staring at Sam. It made Sam distinctly uncomfortable.

His brows lowered in confusion. “Andy, hey,” he greeted uncertainly. “What are you doing here?”

Andy smiled a little, but not enough for Sam to think it was sincere. “Um, the door was open.”

Sam looked concerned now, and glanced around to the front door to see if there were scratched like there had been on the attic door. “Seriously?”

“Yeah,” Andy continued. “I came by to check on y’all and it was open. I looked around, everything seems to be in order…”

As he droned on woodenly, Sam saw something on the floor in the sitting room. His eyes went wide when he saw it was the Book of Shadows. Out in the open. Where Andy could see it.

Prue would blow a gasket.

“You want me to check upstairs?”

It took Sam a second to realize that he was being asked a question, but when he did, he put on his biggest smile. “No, no, I think we’re good,” he said brightly, moving to direct Andy out the door.

“You sure-“

“We’re sure,” Sam said immediately, and despite the fact that he was smaller started to shove Andy towards the open door right as Dean walked in from the garage.

“Oh, hey, Andy,” he greeted, grinning at him. “Didn’t see your car out front.”

“Yes, just checking in-“ Andy began, only for Sam to cut him off.

“And he was about to leave, so say goodbye, Dean,” the younger boy said insistently before starting to push Andy towards the door again.

Andy made a face, and Dean frowned until Sam shot a look at him that roughly translated to _‘don’t ask questions just get him out’_. For a few seconds, Dean just stared at his little brother before turning to Andy and shrugging. Andy was still frowning, but he didn’t argue and walked towards the door.

“I’ll say hi to Prue for you,” Dean said cordially, trying to wave. Andy seemed to wave back noncommittally, but the second he was out the door, Sam had shut it hard behind him.

Immediately, Dean shot a glare at Sam. “What was that all about?”

“The book is on the floor in the next room,” Sam replied shortly, locking the front door before rushing into the other room.

Dean raised an eyebrow, but momentarily followed. His eyes went wide when he saw that it was true. The Book of Shadows, laying on the sitting room floor, where everyone could see it. Especially their cop friend.

“What the hell is it doing down here?” Sam growled as he picked it up.

“ _How_ did it get down here?” Dean followed up.

“Andy said the door was open when he came to check on the house,” Sam said, standing back up straight and starting towards the stairs. “Someone must have gotten in and tried to take it.”

Dean’s brow furrowed as he took the lead up the stairs. Neither of them were entirely surprised to see that the door to the attic was almost completely knocked off of his hinges. Just like the night before, Dean saw red about the fact someone had gotten in and tried to break down the door.

He and Sam went through the entire house to try and see if anything was out of place. When Piper, Phoebe and Prue got home, they apprised them of the situation. Between the break in of the dog, and finding the book downstairs, Prue and Dean were both pretty insistent that someone was trying to steal the book.

Phoebe was still trying to hope for the best, though. “You don’t know that for sure.”

“I know plenty,” Prue shot back. “First, someone rips off the attic door, then the book of Shadows is found downstairs. Isn’t that enough?”

“Why would someone want the book?” Piper asked.

Dean snorted a little. “Piper, you’ve seen the kind of spells and potions that are in there. There are probably a dozen people just on this side of town that would kill to have that thing.”

“But that would mean it’s someone who knows us, and who knows that we’re witches,” Piper insisted.

“Someone like Victor…” Prue grumbled.

Immediately everyone turned to look at her. Phoebe’s brow wrinkled a little, and she tried to forget about the premonition she had had. “What? Dad?”

Prue looked at them all pointedly. “Just think about it. The moment he shows up someone makes two attempts to steal the book. I doubt that’s a coincidence.”

“We still don’t know whether either of our dads knows about our powers,” Sam said practically.

“But they still _could_ ,” Prue said.

“We don’t know that,” Phoebe muttered where she was sitting on a counter-top.

She couldn’t help but think about the premonition she had had. If she told Prue about it, it would be damning evidence, but what if it was a fluke? Then she would never have a chance to know her dad…

“What would he want with the book anyway?” Piper asked. “And why would he take it from us?”

“More importantly, why would he have left it behind if he _was_ the one that broke in?” Phoebe asked. Her premonition had the book in his hands. Maybe her premonition was just of him looking for something in the book. Maybe he had no intentions to steal it.

Sam looked like he was about to say something to the effect that _he_ knew why it hadn’t left the house, but as the others just looked stumped, he decided to stay quiet about it.

Eventually, Piper just looked at all of them. “Okay, then we can call the cops and report it as a break in.”

“There isn’t anything they can do, Piper,” Dean said. “They didn’t take anything, and it’s not like we can tell them they’re trying to steal our magic spell book. We need to stay away from the cops with this.”

“Besides, Andy was already here,” Sam added. “Maybe we should just hide the book until we figure this out.”

Prue looked mildly pleased about Andy having been by, but with their current issues having hit a dead end, Piper decided to turn to a similarly controversial topic.

“Now that that’s settled, what are we doing about dinner tonight?”

Prue sighed a little, and since she was not in the mood for any games, she went ahead and said it. “I still say we don’t go.”

“Well, tough,” Piper replied flatly. “Because I want to see dad.”

Phoebe looked similarly firm on the subject when Prue turned to her. “So do I.”

Prue set her jaw and looked at the two of them, disappointed in their choice.

“Then you’ll have to go without me.”

 

(-:-)

 

Neither of the sisters had been surprised at Prue’s decision. She of course had been the only one of them old enough to remember their father with any clarity, and was the only one that had truly felt abandoned by him. Piper was still just a little sad that they couldn’t have a nice meal as a family, but she didn’t blame her sister for it at all.

Similarly, she wasn’t surprised that even when asked if they wanted to tag along, Dean and Sam both opted to stay at home for the night. Sam made the decent argument that Victor hadn’t been around when they had been born, probably didn’t know they existed, and that they probably shouldn’t show up unexpected. Dean had just kind of made a face and said that this was a dinner for _them_. Why the hell would he want to go?

So, it was just Piper and Phoebe that set off across town to meet their father at the Balmark Hotel. For the entire drive, Piper felt her heart starting to beat twice as fast, stuttering now and then when she tried to breathe and calm herself down.

Phoebe looked to be marginally better, and as soon as she saw their father in the lobby, rushed up to hug him.

For the first five minutes as they stood, and waited to get a table, though, all Piper could do was stare. This was her father after all. She had vague, but happy memories of him hidden somewhere in the back of her head, and seeing him in person was one of the few things she had wanted all her life.

And now that he _was_ there, she wasn’t entirely sure how to feel.

He smiled at her and Phoebe from across the table once they were seated. An appetizer was already on the table, and Piper had taken to nibbling on the carrot sticks to hide how quiet she was being.

Victor opened the conversation. “Girls, it’s nice to see you. It’s not like we don’t have a lot to talk about.”

“We do,” Phoebe started, sounding a little overexcited, but then Piper shot her a look, reminding her that they had to be cautious. “I mean, yeah…we have a few questions.”

Victor still smiled at them, and turned to Piper to say, “You know, the last time we ate dinner together, you would only eat food that was white.” He indicated the carrot stick she still had in her hand. “I’m glad to see you’ve outgrown it.”

Despite the cautious demeanor that had come back over her, Piper had to smile. “That’s right,” she exclaimed. “I was four…”

“Phoebe, that would’ve made you what, one?” he asked his younger daughter in turn. He laughed a bit as Phoebe nodded excitedly, and then continued. “You know, you couldn’t walk yet, but you could swim. You were a fish.”

That had Phoebe laughing too.

A moment passed as they all smiled at each other, and Victor asked. “This feels right, doesn’t it? This feels natural…almost natural.”

Even though he had made them all laugh, Piper still hadn’t quite moved past the fact that they had questions that needed to be answered, though. “Almost,” she said. Victors face started to fall, and she felt a little guilty. “It’s just…um…well. Why? I mean, after all this time, why here? Why now?”

Victor paused, but eventually he answered. “Well, I heard the food was pretty good here,” he began jokingly. “And it’s dinner time.”

Phoebe laughed again as a waiter came up, giving them all their starters. Piper just smiled politely at her father’s joke.

“Here you are ma’am,” the waitress said to them, handing out their plates.

Phoebe thanked her, and Victor said that they should tuck in. Piper went ahead and started to eat, deciding to go ahead and enjoy dinner.

 

(-:-)

 

At the manor, they were tucking into a much more subdued dinner. Neither Prue or Dean were gourmet chefs like Piper, so they just threw together what they could find in the fridge, which meant frozen peas and carrots with microwaveable fish sticks.

They were all sitting at the dinner table, almost completely quiet. Prue was pushing things around on her plate, hardly eating at all because of the emotions tumbling around in her gut. Dean and Sam kept shooting each other nervous looks, wondering if they should say anything. No one had finished their food when the doorbell cracked through the house like a thunder clap.

Prue got up to get it without a word. Dean and Sam were torn between relief for a break in the tension and nervous as to who it could be. If it was Victor, there was no telling how much worse it could get.

Thankfully, though: it wasn’t, and when Prue saw Andy standing on their porch, she practically collapsed into his arms. She didn’t have to see his face to know that he was surprised at the overt display of surrender.

“You will not believe who’s back in town,” she mumbled into his shirt, snuggling for just a second before pulling him with her into the house. Dean and Sam lit up seeing him, and for a few seconds, the house was just like normal: generally happy and loud.

Andy was served a plate full of what everyone else was having, and smiled despite that it didn’t look very tasty, and seemed genuinely concerned as Prue explained about Victor’s reappearance.

Every now and then, Sam would chime in along with her, because while Dean was trying not to pick sides in his family, Sam was on the opposite end. He was normally quiet about it, but he resented how they had to be raised by their grandmother. He didn’t blame his mother or his Aunt Patty for dying, and he had loved Grams, but they weren’t orphans. In his mind, there was no reason Victor should have walked out on the girls.

He was generally angry with his own father as well. Even if John was out killing the monsters that had killed their mother, his kids should have come first. Any time they _did_ spend with their dad was spent locked away in hotel rooms, poring over monster lore, or teaching the boys how to hustle pool. Not playing catch, or the things normal parents did. John had never had a part in any of the big moments of Sam’s childhood, just like Victor wasn’t part of Prue’s.

Sam was completely on Prue’s side.

Andy wasn’t letting it be known what side he was on exactly, but was nodding supportively, and agreeing that this was a big deal. After Prue was finished with the tale of what had happened that day, he looked at her seriously. “How are you dealing?”

Prue sighed a little, and leaned on the table. “Honestly, I’m not…” she sighed, running a hand over her head.

Andy winced in sympathy and put a hand across the table for her to hold. “I don’t blame you,” he said. “What do you think he wants?”

There was a brief blip where Dean and Sam were worried she would mention the book, so Sam blurted out, “Dinner.” Every one’s eyes turned to him, and he just shrugged a little. “He asked them to go to dinner.”

The reminder made Prue sigh heavily. “And that’s where Piper and Phoebe are right now…” she grumbled. “You know, they just don’t understand. They don’t remember him like I do…Ugh, I can’t believe I let them go…”

She jumped up from her chair and started to pace, her hands flying around in agitation. Dean’s jaw clenched as he looked down at the table, and Andy became visibly concerned as he watched her.

“He’s acting like absolutely no time has passed, like I’m still his little girl and I’m not!” she continued, before rounding back to look at them. “There are things I want to tell him, I want him to know what he missed. He doesn’t know about the time I broke my arm, or how we had a party the day I finally passed my drivers’ test. He wasn’t there for prom…he doesn’t even _know_ about Sam and Dean. I want him to know about it. I want him to _want_ to know.”

She paused for a little bit, and moved forward to lean on the chair she had vacated. “And I also want some answers,” she eventually growled. “Like where the hell he’s been all my life. And why didn’t he come back until now. He needs to know that’s not okay.”

There was a beat, and Andy looked at the others, gauging their reactions. Sam looked just as angry about it as Prue did. Dean took a minute to read, but it looked like Dean didn’t like the situation. It was upsetting everyone in the house, but no matter which side he chose, Dean thought it would only make it worse.

So, Andy chose to tell her what _he_ thought she should do. “Then tell him.”

Prue looked surprised, and looked up at him questioningly.

“They’re still at dinner, aren’t they? Go, meet up with them,” Andy encouraged. “Tell him what he missed, and get your answers. You aren’t going to get them here.”

That seemed to only rile Prue up further, and she nodded. She looked at the three of them briefly before rushing for the entryway, grabbing her bag.

The three boys in the dining room just sat there. When they heard the door slam, Dean leaned forward and groaned a little. “You know she’s going to turn that restaurant into Jerry Springer, don’t you?”

Andy sighed a little, and clapped him on the shoulder. “Yeah, but it had to happen sometime,” he answered. “Better now than later.”

“I guess…” Dean grumbled.

Sam stood up and started to collect their plates to put in the kitchen sink. “It’ll be good for them,” he said assuredly. “Though out of curiosity, what are you doing here this late, Andy?”

“The plans I had fell through,” Andy said easily. He leaned back in his chair and pointed at the ceiling, towards the attic. “I thought I’d stop by and check on things after everything last night.”

At this, Dean’s eyebrow’s knit a little. “Seriously? Isn’t twice in one day a little over kill?”

Andy looked similarly confused, and when Sam saw it, he stopped collecting plates.

“I wasn’t here earlier,” Andy said.

Dean straightened up in his seat seriously. “You weren’t?”

“No. The station kept me late today,” Andy answered. “I came straight over as soon as they let me out, and that was only an hour ago.”

Sam’s hands tightened on the plates as he looked over at Dean, and they silently agreed that they needed to get Andy out of the house.

They also now understood that whoever had been breaking in was a shape shifter.

 

(-:-)

 

Outside, there were three ravens that had been looking in. They watched the Halliwells over dinner, but flew away when they understood that they couldn’t get the book tonight.

Their wings didn’t carry them far; they only went across the street. An open window provided them access to their home, and once they touched down in the bedroom, the three of them gradually took the form of the Halliwell’s neighbors, Marshall, Cynda, and Fritz.

“Great plan, Marshall,” Fritz growled at his brother.

“Don’t piss me off,” responded the eldest. “Look, we were working with the information that Dean was still travelling with his father, and that Prue didn’t let Sam stay home by himself. We don’t have a plan for either of _them_ put together yet.”

Cynda sneered. “That little witch was supposed to be at dinner with her sisters.”

Fritz was still focused on Marshall. “Like you would _ever_ have been able to trick Prue into getting the book out of the house.”

“Well we sure as hell can’t now, can we?”

“What now then, genius?!”

There was a sudden sound, and they heard their sister screech. When they turned, Cynda had turned into a beast. Her back was hunched, her hair long and stringy. She had grown claws and fangs, and looked ready to tear someone’s limbs off with them.

“We kill them!” she yelled.

Marshall put his hands up placating, though. “Patience, Cynda.”

“Patience is overrated!” Cynda yelled again. “We could destroy them right now!”

“Then,” Marshall said levelly. “We’d have five dead witches, and no way to get the book out of the house. Where would that put us?”

Cynda just sneered. “I would be satisfied.”

“I still like my idea,” Fritz said. “We kill four of them and force the little one to get the book out of the house for us.” He crossed his arms, and leveled his gaze at Marshall, who was standing firm against his blood-thirsty siblings.

“Let me explain this _once again_ for the cerebrally impaired,” he growled at them. “These are not school girls we’re dealing with. These are witches. Strong. Witches. We cannot alert them with our presence. At their full strength, battling them would be unpleasant. Once we possess the book, we get its powers, we weaken theirs, and they’re easy prey.”

Fritz glared. “You know, that sounds good in theory, but _we’ve already tried that!”_

Marshall rolled his eyes and said one more thing before walking towards the door. “Then we still have Victor.”

 

(-:-)

 

 When Prue stormed into the hotel restaurant, it wasn’t hard to spot Victor and her sisters. They were all laughing happily, and Victor’s face was lit up like a Christmas tree. Prue was practically spitting fire, though, as she walked up to them. They quieted once they saw her.

Victor stood up and smiled at her despite her hostility. “Prudence,” he started to greet.

She cut him off. “Did I miss much?”

“Uh, just a catch up,” Phoebe answered. She still sounded happy, but she had quieted, starting to get a little nervous. “Dad was filling us in. Memory lane…”

“Really?” Prue challenged. “Has he mentioned where he’s been all our lives?”

Victor’s gaze fell to the table, and he swallowed heavily at the statement.

“Prue,” Piper quietly warned.

Her older sister ignored her. “I don’t understand. If you can afford a spot like this, why didn’t you help out when Grams died? We actually could have used it then.”

“Prue,” Piper interrupted again. “Give him a chance. Dad’s explained. The money, all this, it’s new.”

Victor held up a hand, though. “It’s okay, Piper. I’m a big boy,” he assured her. “I didn’t come back earlier because I was afraid I might disappoint you.”

Prue’s eyes narrowed. “Too late.”

Victor held her gaze, though. “Please, sit down,” he offered. “Have something to eat.”

“I’m not hungry,” Prue replied.

With a shake of his head, Victor just kept talking ignoring the waiter that was starting to come up behind Prue, holding an overly large flambé. “Always in a hurry, aren’t you Prue. You skipped crawling and went straight to walking.”

“Ah, we’re sharing memories,” Prue said dryly. “Well I got one of my own, of your back walking out the door.”

Victor was opening his mouth to answer again just before the waiter got close behind them, and tripped.

Piper jumped, about to blurt, “look out!” but once she waved her hands, the entire restaurant froze.

For a few moments, the girls all looked around, a little shocked that this had happened again, but the good news was that it was nowhere near as bad as Piper’s other accidental freezes, as far as danger went.

Piper sighed in exasperation and quickly stood up, taking the flambé from the waiter, where he was frozen in mid-air. Phoebe sighed a little, and Prue continued glaring at her father. Almost instantly, everyone unfroze. The waiter face-planted on the floor beside Prue, and Victor flinched as Piper held out the dessert.

“Who wants flambé?” she asked with a smile.

Victor grinned at her as the waiter stood up and took the flambé away from Piper, continuing to the table it was meant for, and Piper smiled back as she sat back down.

“Nice reflexes,” her father praised, before his face grew a little more seriously. “Now, let me get this straight: Piper, you freeze time?”

The smile that had been on Piper’s face vanished. Victor knew about their powers?

Prue started to glare even more heavily as Victor turned to her.

“Prue, don’t you move things with your mind? And what’s your specialty, Phoebe?” he turned to his youngest, who now looked nearly heartbroken. “Premonitions?” He took their subdued faces as a sign that this wasn’t a welcome conversation.

“Maybe we should talk about this elsewhere.”

 

(-:-)

 

The drive to the manor was tense for _everyone_ , which was quite a feat considering they all took separate cars. Prue was in her sedan, Victor took his rental, and Piper and Phoebe were in Piper’s jeep.

No one was entirely sure if things got better or worse when they got to the house and Dean and Sam jumped out of the bushes with a fork and a video camera.

“No one move until we’ve looked at you!” Dean blurted.

Victor practically jumped out of his skin. “What the-“

Piper interceded. “Dad, this is Dean and Sam, our cousins. We told you about them remember, and- _what the hell are you doing?_ ” she changed tones as Sam stuck the video camera in her face, looking carefully at her eyes, and Dean prodded her arm with the fork.

“We’ll tell you later, just go with it,” Sam said quickly. He nodded at Piper, apparently deciding she was clean or something before moving onto Phoebe.

“Guys, go ahead and tell us,” Prue sighed. “Victor knows about our powers.”

There was a split second where Dean and Sam paused, surprised to hear this, but they then went back to prodding their cousins with the fork.

“Remember how I told you Andy was by earlier today?” Sam said. “Well, it turns out that Andy was at the station late. There was no way it was him, so we think whoever’s been trying to get in is a shapeshifter.”

“And what does this have to do with-ouch! Hey!” Victor yelped.

Dean looked unapologetic for stabbing his uncle with the fork, despite the fact he wasn’t taking sides. “Shifters’ skin burns when they get touched with silver,” he said shortly, holding up the fork pointedly. “And their eyes flare when they’re on camera.”

“Do we all pass the screening?” Victor asked dryly.

The two brothers eyed him suspiciously. Dean prodded him with the fork again before grunting vaguely and moving onto Phoebe. Prue rolled her eyes at this and walked inside ahead of them.

Because of the news the boys had given her, she did a quick walk through of the house, checking each of the rooms to make sure nothing had gotten in without the boys noticing. When she made it back to the bottom floor, she was surprised to hear a beat of laughter.

All the others had corralled themselves in the living room, Victor was pointing at a picture frame in Piper’s hands. Dean looked positively flabbergasted at whatever he had just said. Piper and Phoebe were giggling. Sam was making a face.

“What’s so funny?” Prue asked, her brow creasing as she rejoined the group.

“Do you remember the day this was taken?” Piper laughed as she turned the frame so she could see it. It was a simple picture, slightly off color from the old film style.

It was of their family in the mid seventies. Two women were the center of the picture: Patty Halliwell, with her long brown hair was smiling brightly, and pretending to dip her little sister, Mary, like they were dancing. Mary was wearing a very quaint white dress.

On Mary’s other side was a man with dark hair, and a bright smile, who was making sure Mary didn’t fall. That was Uncle John, back before Mary had died. On the other side of Patty, Victor was holding two laughing little girls. Prue was the older of the two, the younger being baby Piper, and both of them were smiling like it was the best day ever.

“Yeah, Uncle John and Aunt Mary’s wedding,” Prue said, her voice drifting as she wondered how it had come up.

“Did you know your mom and John planned the entire thing in three days?” Victor asked.

That explained why Dean and Sam looked so off put. They could understand their dad being excited about the wedding, but John had always been gruff around them. Definitely not the guy to plan his wedding with his sister in law.

“Mary’s father, Grampa Samuel, and his wife Deanna had died a month or two before this was taken, and she wasn’t dealing with it very well. To make it better, they decided that the perfect wedding would cheer her up. It was small, of course: just family, but your mom didn’t stop until she had an honest smile on Mary’s face.”

Prue fought the smile that tried to appear on her face as she took the frame from Piper, and looked at all of their smiling faces. Grams had told them what it was of, but she had never explained it like that. She could imagine everyone’s celebratory laughter ringing through her head. But at the same time, she felt like smiling would be giving her father the win here.

So instead she just handed the picture to Dean, and looked back at her father seriously. Victor had picked up another frame, though, and was walking towards her. “This one was at one of your piano recitals,” he said. “Not a very good shot, but that’s my fault.”

He trailed off, standing next to Prue so she could look at the picture. She twisted sideways, trying not to let him touch her, even by accident. But she did look at the photo. She was in the center, still very young, with people’s heads clipped off in the foreground. Victor pointed at one of them.

“If you look closely,” he said, “that’s your mom.”

Prue looked closely at the head, and while she couldn’t see her mother’s face, her jaw went a little slack. “I never noticed that before…” she breathed.

Victor smiled at her, and then walked he saw another picture on the wall. He picked this one up too, and smiled ruefully. “And this one used to be a five by seven,” he said, showing it to them. It was just of Patty and her daughters, but the corner was chopped out. Something was missing. “…When I was still in it.”

Phoebe frowned. “I think Grams cut you out.”

“There’s a bunch of other stuff in the attic,” Piper said. “Grams left us _some_ things.”

A little laugh came from Phoebe. “That’s not all she left us.”

Prue and Dean shot her a look of warning, and Piper visibly tensed as the subject of their _inheritance_ had came up.

“Phoebe,” Sam chastised.

Phoebe rolled her eyes. “What? It’s not like he doesn’t already know, and I’m sorry, but it’s kind of a relief to talk to someone about it. I mean, one day I’m a member of the Y generation, with average hair and a thing for caffeinated beverages, and the next, I’m a witch. I just read from the book, and _wham!”_ she winced a little though before looking up at her dad. “The only thing is I got stuck with the power to see the future. How uncool is that?”

Victor shrugged a little about the subject. “Well, from what your mother always said, it was actually considered one of the more desirable powers, but I don’t actually think _she_ felt that way.” He looked at Dean and Sam and waggled a finger in their direction. “That was Mary’s power.”

At that news, Sam went incredibly still, and his eyes widened just a little. “M…mom had premonitions?” he asked quietly.

Victor nodded. “Yes.”

Prue’s heart clenched a little as she saw her younger cousin sink down in his chair a little. All of them had lost their mother, but Sam had hardly even known Mary. Only one picture of them together had survived the fire when she died, and any connection with her made him go quiet and contemplative.

Apparently the rest of the room was considering the same thing, as they had all gotten quiet. So Prue turned to her father. “So how long have you known?” she asked. “About us, about our powers? How long?”

“I knew there was a possibility,” he answered in a low tone. “That’s one of the reasons I came back. It must have happened when your grandmother died, right?”

Phoebe perked up again. “Yep, I just read an incantation from the book, and-“

Prue’s eyes narrowed at the mentioning of the book, and she cut her off. “Phoebe.”

But it was too late. Victor looked up at the ceiling knowingly. “Ahh, the Book of Shadows,” he muttered. “Not exactly summer reading. Is it still up in the attic?”

The room went completely quiet now. Phoebe sat up nervously while Piper started breathing unevenly. She walked behind Sam’s chair, hiding just a little at what she could sense was about to happen. Dean’s hands tightened at his sides cautiously, and he shot a glance at Prue. Prue didn’t look away from Victor as he continued.

“I haven’t seen it in years. Mind if I have a look?”

Prue’s eyes narrowed now. “And what if I say no?” she asked harshly.

Victor looked at her quizzically. “I don’t know why that would be necessary…” he muttered.

“Actually it might be.”

Victor squared himself facing her. “What exactly are you accusing me of, Prue?”

She sneered at him. “Figure it out.”

Phoebe started to stand in defense of her father. “Come on Prue, take it easy…”

“Are you kidding me?” Prue exclaimed. “Am I the only one who see’s what’s going on here?”

“C-can’t we all just take a deep breath…” Piper started, not wanting a fight, but Prue cut her off again.

“Think about it, Piper,” she growled, glaring daggers at Victor. “He wines and dines, and now he’s back in the house he hasn’t set foot in for twenty years, and the first think he wants to know is _where’s the book of shadows_?”

Phoebe glared at her sister and blurted, “You’re just looking for something to blame him for!”

Prue wasn’t listening, though, and looked straight at Victor. He’d said nothing, and was just looking at her, remaining calm. “Admit it, tell them why you’re here.”

Dean started to stand, not quite willing to listen to a shouting match that would only upset everyone. “Prue, slow down,” he started to interrupt, his voice low.

Prue ignored him too. “For the first time in your life, Victor, tell them the truth.”

The levelness that still was on Victor’s face wasn’t mirrored in his tone as he crossed his arms and said, “Alright, fine. You’re right. I am after the book. That’s exactly the reason why I came back.”

Everyone in the room went silent, and looked at Victor in shock. Piper gripped the back of Sam’s chair hard enough that her fingers started turning white.

Phoebe looked heartbroken as she said, “Dad…”

Victor looked at all of them softly, though. “But it’s not for the reasons you want to believe.” He looked at Prue now, and was steady as he said, “That would make it easier for you, Prue, wouldn’t it? If I were evil? Well I’m sorry to disappoint you, but I’m not. I’m here to protect you.”

“Yeah right…” Prue growled at him, but Piper’s eyes had gone wide.

She asked him, “To protect us from what?”

“From yourselves,” Victor said, drawing a raised eyebrow from Sam. “That’s why I want that damn book. It’s where your power started, and it’s where it has to end.”

Phoebe looked confused now. “But it’s part of us, it’s part of who we are…”

Victor looked at her, and no one could deny the sadness in his eyes. “That’s what your mother believed too, before this life killed her.” He looked around at all of them, now, deadly serious. “You have no idea what evil is out there.”

Sam leaned forward in his chair, and looked at Victor challengingly. “We know more than you think we do,” he said. “And we’re not helpless.”

Victor seemed confused at this, and at the fact it was Sam saying it, but he looked at him just as challengingly. “Really?” he asked. “So you’re willing to risk your lives, your family? You all have to listen to me. That book is a magnet for evil. As long as you have it, as long as you use it, you’re in danger. All of you.”

Prue snapped at Victor again. “You’re unbelievable. After all these years of being an absentee dad, you waltz back into our lives and tell us how to live.”

Victor closed his eyes with frustration. “I never wanted you to have those powers in the first place,” he said in frustration. “I battled with your grandmother after your mom died. She wanted you to find out you were witches when you grew up; I didn’t. I fought for you, hard. Your grandmother was too strong.”

Piper made a face that obviously said that was the wrong thing to say. Dean, despite his attempt at neutrality, found a limit when Victor said that. “Woah-you’re blaming Grams?” he spat at Victor. “No. _You_ were the one that disappeared. _She_ was the one that raised your kids when you damn well should have been there instead.”

“Grams loved us,” Piper added. “Grams was the one that was there when you weren’t!”

“What did she do?” Prue challenged mockingly. “Put a spell on you?”

“Nothing short of that would have kept me away,” Victor insisted. “You have to believe me. All I want is what’s best for you.” He looked desperately at each of them, but Sam and Prue had long since decided Victor was full of nonsense. He’d lost Piper by bringing up Grams. He looked at Phoebe and moved towards her desperately. “Phoebe, you believe me don’t you?”

His youngest daughter flinched away.

“We’ve done fine without you,” Prue said harshly.

Victor looked back at her, his frustration coming out in his voice. “Prue, you can’t fight this,” he pleaded. “I couldn’t. Do you really think you can hold up against them forever?!”

“We’ve survived more than you know!” Prue yelled at him. “You’ve hurt us more than any of them ever can!”

Without thinking about it, she swung her hands dramatically, and her powers shot Victor across the room. He landed hard against the door frame, knocking a picture of the wall in the process. Despite the fact that they had just been fighting, Phoebe and Piper gasped in concern, forgetting their anger. Dean and Sam tensed at the overt display of violence. Prue just kept glaring as Victor slowly stood up.

“If you wanted me to leave, all you had to do was ask,” he said, his voice defeated as he walked towards the door.

Everyone was silent as Prue watched him go before turning back to her family, and she wasn’t entirely shocked to see that Phoebe and Piper looked even more upset than they had a minute ago.

Phoebe was scrambling out of her armchair. “Why did you have to do that?” she cried to her sister as she ran after Victor.

Prue’s jaw dropped a little at that before she looked at Piper, who similarly asked, “Did you have to throw him so hard?”

“Piper!” Prue protested.

“We could have just, you know, talked about it like normal people…”

But Prue interrupted her sister. “We’re not normal,” she growled, before storming towards the stairs.

 

(-:-)

Victor’s drive back to the hotel was quiet with misery, even after Phoebe had tried to keep him from leaving. Part of him wanted to argue that he really was just looking out for them, but that didn’t mean that his children’s comments weren’t true.

He knew he had abandoned them, and he knew that they would resent him for it forever. Part of him still firmly believed that Penny Halliwell had put some kind of spell on him to make him turn away, but it was his fault he had stayed away. It was only recently, after putting on the suit that came with his snazzy new job, that he had gotten the courage to go see them again.

It was just bad timing, he supposed, that someone had been trying to steal the book when he arrived. He hadn’t planned on taking it from them. He’d just wanted to discourage them from becoming witches. Magic was the reason Patty had died, after all. From what he knew, it was the reason Mary had died as well. He didn’t know why they didn’t understand it was dangerous.

He went up to his hotel room fully intending to drink away his misery, and was sitting down on the couch with a bottle of scotch when he heard a voice.

“Hello, Victor. Where have you been?”

It was his first instinct to spin around and ask what the hell was going on, but he was too miserable to be that dramatic. “How did you get in here?” he asked, barely looking up.

He saw a tall man with brown hair pop out of the corner. “I think you should be a little more concerned with what we’re doing here?”

To either side, the man had a companion. One was another man, with curly hair, and the other was some sort of monster.

Victor sighed. “I was wondering when evil would rear its ugly head…”

“Consider it reared. I don’t know what kind of people you’re used to dealing with, but I’d lay serious coin that they aren’t willing to rip you into a thousand pieces and dance on your entrails.”

A snort escaped from Victor’s mouth. “Ah, so you’re lawyers,” he joked. “And here I was assuming you were shape shifters…”

“Those are clever words for a man about to be an appetizer,” the man with the curly hair snarked, while the female made amused grunting noises.

“And yours are cocky for a man who can’t get a book out of a house…” Victor muttered. He was quiet as he leaned back, considering his options. The monster was obviously ready to rip him limb from limb, and Victor was pretty sure he couldn’t take that on. However, he was also a business man. He could come up with a way out of this.

“Close your mouth,” he continued. “I mean, it’s obvious. You’re gonna shape shift into me and try to get the girls that way, am I right? It won’t work.”

“Why not?!” The monster shouted at him in a deep, angry voice.

Victor laughed morosely. “After tonight, the girls won’t let me or anything that looks like me back into their lives, let alone their house. I have officially been kicked out. There’s only one sister I could possibly reach. Phoebe.”

“So why don’t I just become you, and I’ll reach her?” the man with the curly hair challenged, and Victor sighed.

“Because only her real father would know what buttons to push. The ones that would get me back in. You kill me, you’ll never know what they are, you’ll never get back into the house, and you’ll never get the Book of Shadows.”

Nervously, he looked up at the shifters, who didn’t looked pleased with his proposition. The words he had just said about Phoebe made Victor a little sick, but it would certainly help him to survive, and hopefully the girls would understand that.

(-:-)

 

The following morning was tense. Piper and Prue weren’t talking to one another. Phoebe had been avoiding everyone. Dean and Sam were caught in the middle, trying not to make the fighting worse.

Technically, they all knew now that Prue had been right: Victor was there to take the book, thinking he was protecting them. No one thought that was okay, but Piper and Phoebe had retained the idea that even if he was doing something hurtful, he was doing it out of love. Prue had ruined any chance at a relationship with their father by throwing him across the room.

Dean and Sam, while they were mostly on Prue’s side, were mildly upset about that, too. They didn’t really have a vested interest in Victor’s welfare, but they knew their powers weren’t supposed to be used on mortals, and breaking that rule was a slippery slope to being hunted. Whether Victor was being a douche or not, Prue had broken that rule, and that wasn’t okay.

Even so, life had to go on, so Piper made breakfast the next morning as always. Despite the fact that no one had an appetite, Sam, Dean, Piper and Prue wound up sitting at the breakfast table in silence. Every now and again, Prue’s fork clacked against the side of her plate, or they heard Phoebe pattering around upstairs, but the first time anyone said anything all morning was when the doorbell rang.

Dean of course slid up to get it, and quickly said, “That’s probably Leo…”

Piper raised an eyebrow, and watched him walk towards the door. “Who?” she called after him, only to not receive an answer.

A few minutes later, Dean guided the handyman back into the house. Leo smiled at them all cordially, and even though Piper smiled back, he could tell something was wrong.

“Guys, this is Leo,” Dean introduced. “He’s a handyman me and Pheebs met at the store yesterday and he offered to help put the new door up in the attic.”

Piper raised an eyebrow, and Prue glared a little. “A handyman? Dean, I thought we talked about this, we can’t afford…”

Leo quickly shook his head. “No, it’s not like that,” he interrupted quickly. “No charge, I just wanted to help out.”

Prue raised an eyebrow, a little confused, but nodded. “Well thanks then.”

“We’ll get to work…” Dean muttered, before starting to lead Leo up the stairs.

Sam couldn’t help but overhear them chatting as they walked out. “Everyone seems a little down. Did something happen?”

Dean sighed a little. “Trust me man, you don’t wanna know…”

As soon as they were out of earshot, Phoebe walked into the room, and Sam fought the urge to groan at how no one spoke at all. Phoebe looked at her sisters expectantly, before sarcastically declaring, “Good morning Phoebe…”

Still no one responded. She looked at Sam disbelievingly. Without any other ideas, she walked over to the table and grabbed one of the white napkins, waving it around like a peace flag. “Alright guys, can we call it a truce for just a few minutes?” Prue and Piper still didn’t look up, and Phoebe sighed before adding. “Please?”

Though it still didn’t look like anyone was in a forgiving mood, Prue looked up from her plate, and Piper slowly put down her newspaper, indicating she was listening even if she wasn’t looking at her sisters.

Phoebe continued. “I’ve got a confession,” she said. “Remember at lunch, when you guys decided that we weren’t going to go see dad until dinner?” The other sister’s eyes narrowed a little in remembrance, and Phoebe sighed a little. “Well, I kind of did.”

Prue sat up a little straighter. “You went to see him without us?” she charged.

The youngest sister gave them a guilty nod. “Yeah, and I was only there for a few minutes, but I had a premonition about Dad when he hugged me.” She looked at the floor. “He was stealing the Book of Shadows.”

This called all of them out of their quiet disregard, and all of them shot looks of disbelief at her. Piper completely dropped her newspaper to turn around, and opened her mouth to ask questions before Piper waved her off. “Yes, I get it. I should have told you about it, and yes, Prue: you were right. But…I was just hoping, praying that there was a good explanation for it. I just wanted for him to have been here for us, so he could be a part of our lives…” she looked at all of them and winced a little. “He’s our dad…”

Prue’s expression softened, and she stood up to walk over towards her. “I know, Phoebe,” she said, and in those few words, apologized for ruining that for her little sister. She walked around the table and hugged her, leaving Piper to slump silently in her seat, not sure what to say at all.

Sam, for his part, looked away. It was a bonding moment for his cousins who rarely got along, and even if he was glad for it, watching was awkward. He started to stand up to take his plate to the kitchen, but his eye caught on a piece of metal on the ground.

He dropped his plate back on the table before walking over to pick it up. It was a ring, and once he noticed it, he held it up for the girls to see.

“Hey, what’s this?”

Prue and Phoebe pulled out of their hug, and Piper looked at him. She raised an eyebrow and stood up. “It’s dad’s wedding ring,” she said, standing and taking it from Sam. She looked at it closely before turning back to Prue and Phoebe. “What’s it doing here?”

Phoebe shrugged a little. “It must have fallen off when Prue…” Before it was completely out of her mouth, she could see Prue starting to look a little guilty, so she restarted. “When dad uh…fell…”

Prue took a few steps forward and took the ring from Piper. “I’ll take it back to the hotel…” she said, silently letting it be known that she meant to apologize for at least getting violent, and it put a slight smile on Phoebe’s face.

With the tension broken at least a little, Sam relaxed a bit, and moved to take everyone’s plates to the sink. Piper suddenly realized that they hadn’t been incredibly cordial when Leo had introduced himself, and that maybe she should offer him some coffee. She followed Sam into the kitchen to start the coffee maker. Prue walked into the front room to put Victor’s ring on the front table, and Phoebe decided that someone should probably check the mail now that they were going back to life as normal.

For all the drama _they_ had been through the night before, things were surprisingly calm in the real world. When she walked outside, Marshal and Fritz waved at her from across the street. She waved back, of course, and smiled at them while she walked forward and opened the mailbox.

But then, she felt a hand on her shoulder, and when she turned around, she gasped when she saw Victor standing there.

He looked at her with wide eyes, and quickly gasped, “Don’t be afraid.”

Phoebe shook her head. She couldn’t believe him anymore, not after her premonition, and his own admission. He had tried to steal the book, and he had lied to them. Even if she wanted him in their life, she couldn’t....

“What are you…” she stammered. “You have to leave.”

“Phoebe,” Victor pleaded, “please! This is very important!”

She shook her head. “I can’t!” she blurted at him. “I don’t wanna talk to you anymore.”

“Phoebe you have to get the book out of the house.”

Phoebe steeled herself at those words, reminded that’s what he was after. “You have to leave,” she repeated, before walking back towards the house. But Victor grabbed her arm before she could get far, pulling her back around to face him.

“Phoebe, trust me,” he insisted, grasping both of her arms in his hands, despite the fact that she was trying to pull away. “Look!”

Phoebe struggled for a few seconds before looking him in the eye. She barely caught a glimpse of how desperate he was for her to listen before a vision snapped into her head.

It was the exact same premonition she had had when Victor hugged her the day before. Victor was standing in their front yard, and taking the book. But once it was in his hands, his face began to change, and he transformed into their neighbor, Marshall. Cynda and Fritz were suddenly at his sides smirking at her, and then they walked away.

When Phoebe’s eyes snapped open, she suddenly understood. Their neighbors were the shapeshifters after the book. Even if Victor hadn’t wanted his daughters to have it, he wasn’t the one trying to steal it.

Victor stared at her, and started to look just a little relieved as he realized that Phoebe had gotten the message, but then a voice called them out of their focuses.

“Is this guy bothering you?”

Phoebe spun around, and nearly froze when she saw that it was Marshall and Fritz.

(-:-)

 

In the attic, Dean and Leo were making quick work of hanging the door. Leo was good at what he did, obviously, and was doing most of the work by himself. Dean handed him the tools he asked for, and helped to keep the door steady, but he didn’t have much to do.

They talked easily while they worked, and eventually Leo asked, “Why did your sister say you couldn’t afford a handyman?”

Dean skipped the explanation about how Piper wasn’t his sister, and winced at the sting about explaining their finances to a stranger. “We sort of have a lot of mouths to feed,” he explained vaguely. “I lost my job a few weeks ago, and since Phoebe isn’t working, we’re still paying off funeral costs and we have to save up for Sam to go to college, we just didn’t think it was an expense we could add right now…”

Leo pulled a face, and kept screwing in the screw he was working on. “That’s unfortunate,” he said. “You have a nice house, but there are some things around here that you can’t do on your own. Hanging a door is one thing, but I saw some serious damage on the paneling downstairs…”

“We’re trying to fix what we can,” Dean said with a shrug. “I’m good with machines and Phoebe is good with a wrench. But yeah…” he sighed a little and conceded. “Some of it is stuff we can’t handle…”

“We could always call it a trade,” Leo suggested.

Dean raised an eyebrow and looked at him. “What do you mean?”

“Well, you know I said something was wrong with my truck, and you said you were a mechanic?” Leo reminded him, looking up and handing him back a screwdriver. “We could trade. You fix the truck, I fix the equivalent damage.”

A small, but satisfied smile went across Dean’s face, and he was about to agree to the work suggested when he heard a loud voice outside. A concerned look pulled over his features before he walked over to the attic window, and looked into the front yard where he saw Victor manhandling Phoebe. Already, Fritz and Marshall were coming over to call him off, but Dean’s stomach started to roil at this.

“Ah hell…” he growled, before stomping towards the stairs. “I’ll be right back,” he said to Leo.

He reached the bottom landing just as Phoebe rushed in through the door.

“Pheebs, what the hell is going on out there?” he growled at her.

She just looked at him sharply. “Dad’s not the one after the book,” she declared quickly. “It’s Marshall.”

“What?”

Both Dean and Phoebe spun around, surprised to see Prue, who had apparently walked in just in time to hear the big announcement.

Phoebe started rushing towards the stairs. “My premonition,” she elaborated. “The one I told you about, it wasn’t dad: the neighbors are shapeshifters, and we need to find a spell to banish them.”

Prue balked a little

Dean started to swear and ran after her. “We’ve got a civilian in the house,” he reminded them, just before they heard Sam’s voice at one of the doorways.

“These are really good Cynda…”

Phoebe and Dean spun around, and they saw Piper and Sam standing with their neighbor, who was holding a tray of cookies. She smiled up at them. “I brought cookies,” she said brightly to them all. “Freshly baked.”

Dean nearly started swearing, and Phoebe’s eyes widened when another figure walked into the room. Fritz smiled at them all. “Hey guys, the door was unlocked,” he greeted.

Prue looked around at all of them, and held her hands up, not sure whether she should be defensive or not, and Phoebe not so discreetly started to walk up the stairs.

Piper raised an eyebrow at this. “Where’re you going?” she asked, completely oblivious to the danger they were in.

“Ah, just gotta get something,” she said, pretending to smile. She looked at Cynda, and tried not to show how afraid she was. “Save me a cookie, okay?”

She didn’t even wait to see Cynda smile at her before she started running up the stairs at full speed. She needed to get to the book.

(-:-)

 

As soon as Dean was out of the attic, Leo stood up a little straighter and let out a breath he was holding. Okay: step one was through. He was in with the Halliwells. Even if this wasn’t the way he had planned originally, and that he wasn’t really a friend yet, at least now he had an excuse to pop in on them.

He looked back to the door, and held up his hands to the screws he hadn’t quite finished with on the doorframe. It started to glow, and without any effort, they speedily drilled themselves in. Now that the door was hung, he could get on with the real reason he was here.

He jumped to work, and looked around the attic to figure out where it was hidden. His charges had been paranoid this past week, and he knew that hiding it was the best option, but he also knew they were about three seconds away from needing it.

He used his sensing abilities to run through the room, and quickly picked up a concentration of magic under a sofa. When he looked, he wasn’t surprised to see the green, leather-bound book, and quickly picked it up and moved it to its customary pedestal.

He flipped through a few pages, considering what he should find. There _had_ to be a banishing spell in here specifically for shape shifters. He knew if it came down to it, Dean and Sam had weapons downstairs that they could use to take out a shifter, but it was way messier than if they used magic. The more they did things Dean and Sam’s way, the more trouble they could be in with the police. Just using Dean’s power to make things explode would probably be too messy, even if Dean wasn’t still wary of using it to kill.

The book suddenly snapped under his fingers, and flicked through a few dozen pages all by itself.

Leo wasn’t too surprised. It was one of the most powerful spell books in the world after all. It had to have a few tricks hidden in its pages.

The page it landed on, though, made him frown. The spell it described was a power of three spell designed to purge all other beings from the house. He understood that it would work on the shape shifters, but it would also kill anyone else in the house, including himself, Dean, and Sam. If he could read his charges, right, the brothers would refuse to leave their cousins alone with the shifters. And more over, he could sense that Victor, their father was still outside waiting to see what was going to happen.

He flicked a few pages further, knowing that there had to be another way.

Leo closed his eyes. He laid a hand on the page he was on and mentally sensed what was in the rest of the book. When he found what he wanted, he flipped to that page and started to move back to the door.

There was the sound of footsteps on the stairs, which meant he had finished just in time. He quickly pretended to be finishing hanging the door just in time for Phoebe to see him.

(-:-)

 

When Phoebe reached the top of the steps, her eyes went a little wide when she saw that Leo was standing there against the door. She was glad that they were getting the house fixed, but there was about to be serious trouble in the manor.

He smiled at her as he stood up. “Hey, just finished with-“

“That’s great!” Phoebe cut him off. “That is really, really great, but I gotta tell you, that there is about to be a big problem downstairs.”

Leo looked concerned. “Really?” he asked. “Anything I can help with?”

Phoebe frowned, and shook her head as seriously as she could manage, but didn’t hide her nerves or the fact that she was lying very well. “No, not really. It’s, ah, family stuff, and…and it would just be for the best if you left, you know?”

Leo seemed to consider, but after a moment just pursed his lips and nodded, not putting up much of a fight before he said goodbye and started downstairs.

Phoebe leapt straight back to action and ran into the attic, slamming the new door behind her and locking it. The deadbolt still wasn’t installed, but the door at least had a lock. She ran to get the book from where they had hidden it under the chair, and nearly had a heart attack when she saw that it wasn’t there.

“Oh god-oh god where is it?!” she chanted frantically as she looked around the attic for it. She was about to go check the closet, and make sure that Prue just hadn’t found a new hiding spot, when she saw that it was just on its podium.

She let out a sigh of relief before rushing over to it.

Before she could start flipping through the pages, though, or wondering how it had gotten there, she saw that the title of the page it was on.

_To Banish a Shape-Shifter…_

At first glance, Phoebe didn’t think that it looked like something she would be able to get done really quick. There was a list of ingredients with very specific instructions on how to use them, plus an incantation that suggested the power of three be used for extra force.

Something crashed downstairs suddenly, and Phoebe snapped to look at the door.

She determined that there wasn’t time to find something else, though, and started digging through a dresser for ingredients.

(-:-)

 

Prue’s stomach roiled as she watched Piper and Cynda chat amicably, Sam munching on a cookie, both of them completely unaware of the two monsters in their house. She wanted to turn to Fritz and just force him out. By the look on Dean’s face, it seemed her cousin felt exactly the same way.

Cynda smiled at the two of them. “C’mon guys, don’t you want any?”

A weak smile appeared on Dean’s face. “Ah, no thanks,” he grumbled in response.

Piper raised an eyebrow. “Since when do you say no to sweets?” she asked.

“I wouldn’t take those cookies either, Piper,” Prue warned, her voice low as she turned to look at the brother and sister pair.

Sam stopped chewing almost immediately, catching on that something was wrong, while Piper just tilted her head in confusion.

Cynda and Fritz, though, immediately realized that they had been caught out, and started smirking disgustingly.

“Ah, hey guys, I’m just gonna head out.”

Everyone snapped to attention as Leo suddenly appeared on the stairs. He was looking at them worriedly, but seemed to understand it was best to just keep moving.

The entire room was tense as they waited for him to leave. Dean waved a little, and Piper gave a quiet, “Goodbye.”

The second the door closed, though, Cynda threw her plate of cookies at Dean, and grabbed the front of Sam’s shirt to fling him across the room. Fritz jumped at Prue from behind, trying to put her in a choke hold.

Piper let out a short yelp, moving her hands to try and freeze everyone with no results.

The door opened again, and Victor suddenly rushed in. “Girl’s is everything-“

But he was cut off as something shoved him from behind, and Marshall stalked in, practically stepping on Victor as he slammed the door shut.

Piper waved her arms again, but Cynda jumped at her, and grabbed Piper’s hands as if she were about to rip them off. “Don’t even try!” the shape shifter taunted her. Cynda’s voice went rough and her face started to distort itself. “You’re all gonna be dead anyway!”

“Aw no you don’t, bitch,” Dean growled, running at Cynda. He tackled her so that they both went sprawling into the kitchen, leaving Piper to help Sam.

Marshall immediately zeroed in on the two of them, and walked past Prue and Fritz to try and take them out.

“Stay away from us!” Piper shouted in warning, holding her hand out as Sam started to stand back up. The youngest Halliwell had a glare on his face, and was burrowing through his pockets looking for something.

“Or you’ll do what?” Marshall taunted, laughing just a little as he stepped even closer.

Before he could get too close, though, Sam pulled a fork from his pocket, one of the one’s that he had been prodding the girls and Victor with the night before. “Or this, you dick,” the teenager growled before he reached up and drove the kitchen utensil into the meat of Marshall’s neck.

The shapeshifter wailed as his throat smoked, starting to turn bright, raw red right around the fork’s tines. Sam and Piper skittered around him, and ran towards the kitchen for more potential weapons.

That was the plan, at least, before they walked in and Dean was rammed into the cabinets, grappling with Cynda.

She laughed deviously as they stood there, and before their eyes, she completely shifted into her true form, a gray skinned beast with wild hair and three inch fangs.

Dean swore loudly at the transformation, “And to think I thought you were hot!” he hissed before using all his strength to throw her off of him. She didn’t go more than a few feet, though and immediately started swiping at him with her claws.

Piper and Sam back tracked to stay out of her range, and looked into the living room only to see that Marshall was coming at them, yanking the fork out of his neck even as it continued to smoke.

“You’re gonna pay for that you stupid kid…”

(-:-)

 

Prue wasted no time on Fritz when he jumped at her. She knew the house like the back of her hand, so with little effort, she squeezed her eyes shut, and a vase flew off of a table behind them, slamming into Fritz’ head.

He squawked, and loosened his grip just enough that Prue could spin within his grasp, pushing her hands out to not only shove him away with her own strength, but so her powers shoved him across the room. He sneered at her, and bared his teeth as he fought to start back towards her, but she kept pushing at him, keeping him in his place. She kept looking around the room, trying to find a weapon: something silver, something sharp, anything that she could use against him.

Too late, she felt her concentration slip, and Fritz shouted manically as he tore out of his spot and started running at her.

But someone shouted, “No!” and ran to tackle Fritz into the wall.

Prue gasped in surprise as her father and Fritz crashed into a table. “Dad!” she yelled, running towards them. Victor might have surprised Fritz, but he was definitely not strong enough to fight the shape shifter. Already, Victor was about to be tossed to the side, Fritz growling profanities as he tried to get back to his feet.

Prue got there just in time, though, and used her powers to slam him back to the floor. “NO!” she shouted at him.

She looked up to see Victor wincing as he got back to his feet.

He and Prue looked at each other for a moment, before they were shaken as Piper shouted. Marshall was walking towards them with a look that could kill, Piper was trying to shield Sam.

“Piper!” Victor shouted, about to run for his daughter but Prue moved before he could get far, and used her powers to launch Fritz across the room, bowling Marshall over in the process.

Piper and Sam scuttled around the downed monsters, joining Prue and Victor and staying out of the kitchen where Dean was still in close quarters with Cynda.

Just in time, though, there were rushed footsteps on the stairwell, and Phoebe suddenly appeared on the stairs, struggling to hold the book in one arm and a small bowl in the other.

“Guys, guys!” she shouted. “Get over here and help me with this!”

Prue and Piper reached their sister when she stepped down to the bottom stair, and held out the book for Prue to take, and pulled both of their hands so that it would touch the bowl.

“What is this?” Piper asked.

“No time, just read,” Phoebe blurted, she pointed to the spell on the page, and started reading, with Prue and Piper nervously coming in behind her.

Marshall and Fritz started to get to their feet as the incantation began, and Sam grimaced as he moved to stand between the girls and their aggressors.

_“I destroy this evil by the power of three_

_Let those who change form be banished…”_

In the other room, Dean was swearing loudly, and a bunch of pans suddenly clattered to the counters…

_“No more will you kill with the faces of others_

_I cast you out, I make you vanish”_

Marshall jumped forward and looked like he was about to grab Sam’s throat when the youngest Halliwell dodged forward and hit him on the spot where he had earlier stabbed the fork. It wasn’t long lasting damage, but it made Marshall stumble back into Fritz, keeping them back for the time being.

_“I destroy this evil by the power of three_

_Let those who change form be banished._

_No more will you kill with the faces of others_

_I cast you out, I make you vanish.”_

Piper winced and nearly stopped reading as her eyes flicked over the book and saw that Marshall was going for Sam and Victor again. It took all her willpower not to run forward and protect the two of them, and keep reading.

_“I destroy this evil by the power of three_

_Let those who change form be banished._

_No more will you kill with the faces of others_

_I cast you out, I make you vanish.”_

The second the final chant was out of her mouth, Phoebe jumped forward and put her hand into the bowl, cupping it so there was just a small amount of liquid in her hand. She flung the first handful at Marshall, shouting, “I Banish You!” as firmly as she could muster.

Marshall froze, and as the liquid hit him, he started to smoke. “No!” he gasped. “NO!”

Phoebe ducked around him, getting another handful and doing the same to Fritz, who flat out began screaming as it hit him in the face.

Victor, Sam, Prue and Piper stared in shock as the brothers began to dissolve in front of them, magically melting in a bright silver glow. Phoebe, on the other hand, ran to get to Dean and Cynda.

The kitchen was an absolute wreck. Almost all of Piper’s pans had been knocked off of the rack, and at least three drawers had been pulled out of the cabinets and thrown. Cynda and Dean were rolling around on the floor trying to get out of one another’s grasps at this point, with several smoking forks and knives sticking out of Cynda’s torso and appendages.

Phoebe got into the kitchen just as Cynda gained the upper hand and rolled on top of Dean. Phoebe jerked forward and dumped the rest of the bowl on top of Cynda, and she shouted, “I Banish You!”

Immediately, the beast that was Cynda began to howl in pain, and she was quickly consumed by the same silver glow that had taken both of her brothers.

On the floor, finally free, Dean sighed in relief while the silverware clattered on the tile around him.

The others gathered at the door and looked around. “Is everyone alright?” Piper asked, her voice shaking a little.

Dean gave her a thumbs-up from where he had collapsed, and after a while, the others all answered with something generally positive. Sam moved to help his brother off the ground while Prue walked into the other room, picking up Victor’s ring from the center table where she had left it.

At the entrance to the kitchen, Piper and Phoebe both hugged their father. “I’m sorry we didn’t trust you about the book, dad,” Phoebe was saying. “I don’t think we’ll be getting rid of it anytime soon, but we should have known you weren’t trying to take it…”

“It’s alright,” Victor said with a sigh. “I’m just glad you’re safe after all of this. I’m glad you had the ability to keep yourselves safe…”

“I thought you didn’t want us to use our magic,” Piper commented.

Victor shrugged a little. “I didn’t. Not as long as I still thought of you as my little girls, but you’re obviously not anymore…”

Piper gave him a small, shy smile. “We’re still you’re little girls,” she assured him. “We’re just…”

As she trailed off, Prue walked back in from the other room, holding her dad’s rings. “Witches,” she finished for her sister, smiling ever so slightly at her father, and handing it to him gently.

Victor smiled back as he took his ring back. “Yeah, witches,” he consented.

(-:-)

 

Later that day, Victor left the girls with a smile, and a promise to take them all out to dinner again the next day. Everyone was invited, including the boys, and they all promised that no one would end up fighting this time.

The manor was in a state of disarray, but it was far less of a mess than when they had faced Jeremy. It took Dean and Piper a few hours to clean up the kitchen, but only the vase Prue broke in the living room actually had to be replaced. Even so, Dean called Leo to ask if he could take a look at the cabinets and make sure that there wasn’t any lasting damage.

Less than twenty minutes before Victor was supposed to show up to take them to dinner, and five before Leo was supposed to come look at the cabinets, Prue’s phone rang, and her face lit up when she heard Andy’s voice on the other end of the line.

He asked her about how everything with her dad had gone, and she proceeded to give him a censored version of the last two days: she yelled at Victor and he left, but then the next day he came back and convinced him how he was actually there for them. Andy sounded happy for her over the phone, but also concerned that she was still worried. When she told him how they were supposed to be going to dinner with him tonight, he offered to tag along in case she needed more emotional support on the matter.

She just smiled at him over the phone and said no. “Andy, I’m fine, really. Now, Dad is gonna be here any minute, so I’ve gotta go. But I’ll call you later alright. Maybe we could get dinner tomorrow or something?” She paused, listening to his response before smiling. “Alright, talk to you later…”

Phoebe, who was hanging around, smiled at her. “So he’s dad now?” she teased.

“Yes, Phoebe,” Prue said with a shake of her head before looking at the purple dress her sister was wearing. “By the way, my dress looks good on you.”

Phoebe frowned. “I don’t have any nice clothes, Prue…”

“Dad said it was casual.”

“I don’t care, I wanna look nice for him. Who knows how long it’ll be before we see him again…”

Prue frowned, surprised that she hadn’t considered this before. She hadn’t actually talked with Victor for long enough to know what his situation was. She didn’t even know how long he was supposed to be in San Francisco for. Piper appeared in the doorway with a similar look on her face.

“You don’t think he’s gonna stick around?” she asked sadly.

Phoebe pursed her lips and shook her head. “Let’s just say I no longer have a romanticized image of him,” she said with a little shrug. “And I’m glad about that. At least dad is real now.”

“And,” Prue pointed out optimistically, “at least he’s not the monster we thought he was, which is very reassuring considering we share his genes.”

Piper smiled. “I’m just glad he came back,” she said, “no matter how long he stays.”

The doorbell rang, and they heard Dean clunking down the stairs in his boots. “That’s Leo,” he muttered, going to greet him.

Piper raised an eyebrow before following her cousin, and looking appreciatively at the young handyman. Leo smiled at her.

“Hey man,” Dean said. “Thanks for coming on short notice. Really this shouldn’t take too long…”

“It’s fine, really, Dean,” Leo said, walking in after him before looking at Piper. “Ah, hi, Piper, right?” He held up a thick, padded yellow envelope. “This was on the front doorstep, it’s got you and your sisters’ names on it…”

Piper raised an eyebrow, and took it from him gingerly before looking at it. Her, Prue and Phoebe’s names were written on the side in Sharpie, and when she opened it, there was a note inside, tapped to a video cassette.

She walked back into the conservatory while Dean led Leo into the kitchen to look at the cabinets. “Guys,” she said, calling her sisters to attention as she read the letter. “Dad sent this. He isn’t coming…”

Prue frowned. “What? Why?”

Piper shook her head as she looked up at them, and handed her the letter. “Girls,” Prue began to read. “Something has come up. I hate to leave town, but I can’t make it to dinner. It’s probably for the best if we let the dust settle anyway. I know there’s a lot you would like to forget, but here’s what I remember. Love dad.”

Phoebe raised an eyebrow, and pulled the cassette out of Piper’s hand while Prue looked up.

“Here’s what I remember?” she muttered. “What does that mean?”

Phoebe took the cassette out of its sleeve and walked towards the television. “Only one way to find out…” she muttered.

The three of them slid onto the couch as the video began to play, and they were all surprised to see that it was a Christmas home video. The three of them were all very young, and sitting around the floor while Victor helped them open their presents. Their mother, Patty, was the one operating the camera, and Prue was on Victor’s lap getting a kiss on the cheek.

The girls all smiled as they watched their father swing Piper around, and a very young Phoebe opening up a Barbie doll.

Prue understood what her father meant by this was what he wanted to remember, and now that she was beginning to forgive him, this was what she wanted to remember too.

**Author's Note:**

> If you couldn’t tell from the chat with Victor, Alan was Grams’ first husband, with whom she had Patty, but he died. Samuel was Grams’ second husband (Actually, Fiance. They never got married because they had conflicting “political” views), with whom she had Mary. Samuel also prevented Grams from ever getting married again. He scared off all of her suitors because he didn’t want his daughter to have another father figure.  
> Samuel went off and married Deanna after the fact, and when Mary left San Francisco (She got rid of her powers because she had a premonition of Patty dying and then she saw her own death, then John’s and Grams, and then she saw Sam throwing himself into the pit, and that’s a lot for a seventeen year old to take in.), Deanna happily took in her stepdaughter and Mary lived with them as hunters in Lawrence, where she met John. Deanna and Samuel still died in the same manner explored in SPN:S4E3.  
> Also, sorry if my spellwork sucks. First spell. Woo?  
> Next chapter is nearly done, but won’t be completed until my dad takes me to the gun range. I aim for mid-December. There will be demons (kinda), Sam and Prue remind you that she is his legal guardian, and Phoebe learns to shoot.


End file.
